In the 1960s, there was an ad that
said, “It’s not how long you make it… “It’s how you make it long!” Double
entendre and the fact that they were advertising cigarettes aside, there’s a
message here today for communicators responsible for content creation.
The idea of
“snackable content” has been around for a while now, and “rules” on
limiting website and YouTube videos to 1 to 2 minutes (or 3 minutes, or 30
seconds or less, or…) abound. But is this a new concept? The most ubiquitous
form of “snackable content” remains the television commercial (preceded by the
radio commercial, of course). 60-, 30-, 15-seconds long - or less. We’ve been
exposed to them our whole lives. But, now, anyone can create a “commercial.”
Along with that explosion of content “producers” comes a demand for advice, for
statistics, for rules.
And there’s been
no lack of advice, statistics, and rules. The infamous 2015 Microsoft “study” that
found the average human attention span had now become less than that of a
goldfish has been effectively refuted on several bases. The BBC has weighed in on this,
and, as Andrew Porterfield points out in his excellent article
for the Genetic Literacy Project, “the problem with our apparent distraction may not be
attention, but multitasking. Our brains focus for a reason.”
Most of the
pressure is brought by marketers and those serving them: those who (rightly)
focus on the share of eyeballs and the payoff from proving you’ve reached them.
The long-form vs. short-form debate
will continue,
but there is now research
pointing to pushback against this “shorter is better” movement. There is an
increase in the popularity of long-form content like podcasts, tv series
binging, and books
– particularly among millennials.
What’s the bottom
line? Professional communicators should trust their training and experience. Go
with your gut. How long should this communication be? Long enough to get the
message across. Short enough to leave them wanting more. Compelling enough to
keep them engaged. And quality matters. Sound a little like Communication 101?
New ways for
consumers to read, interact, and engage with content will continue to be developed
(artificial intelligence, virtual reality, mobile-first consumers coming of
age, and so forth). But story-telling will remain the same. You may not have
read this far in this article, but, if you did, was that more up to me than it
was you? It’s not how long you make it. It’s how you make it long.
